bane to animal husbandry
would make good neighbors – if the Yankees hadn’t destroyed them, too.
From the Richmond Daily Dispatch November 15, 1862:
The fence law.
The last Legislature of Virginia, in view of the savages of the enemy rendering it impossible for farmers to keep up their fences, repealed the fence law as it existed in the statutes of Virginia, and passed another act, which we publish below:
1. Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That the 1st section of the 99th chapter of the Code of Virginia, so far as it applies to the counties of Hanover, Henrico, New Kent, Charles City, James City, York, Warwick, Elizabeth City, Alexandria, Fairfax, Fauquier, Stafford, and King George, be, and the same is hereby, repealed.
2. Be it further enacted, That the County Courts of the counties of Augusta, Frederick, Clarke, Warren, Rappahannock, Norfolk, Princess Anne, Mercer, Shenandoah, Page, Prince William, Spotsylvania. Hampshire, Berkeley, Caroline, and Nansemond, shall have power (all the Justices having been summoned, and a majority thereof being present.) to dispense with the existing law in regard to enclosures, so far as their respective counties may be concerned, or such parts thereof, to be described by metes and bounds, as in their discretion they may deem it expedient to exempt from the operation of such law.
3. If any horses, mules, cattle, hogs, sheep or goats, or any animal of either of the preceding classes, shall enter into any grounds in the counties enumerated in the first section of this act, in which the existing law of enclosures has been repealed, or into the grounds of any other county or counties or parts of counties in which the courts thereof shall repeal the existing law of enclosures, after such repeal, the owner or manager of any such animal shall be liable to the owner or occupier of such grounds for any damages arising from such entry; for every succeeding trespass by such animal, the owner thereof shall be liable for double damages; and after having given at least five days notice to the owner or manager of such animal of two previous trespasses, the owner or occupier of such grounds shall be entitled to such animal, if it be found again trespassing on said grounds.
4. provided, however, that this act shall apply to, and be in force in, the counties of Elizabeth City, York and Warwick only for the period of three years, dating from the declaration of peace between the Confederate States and the United States.
5. This act shall be in force from its passage.
fence intact
